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Monday, March 25, 2013

Quilled Marriage Certificate and Wedding Invitation

A quick catch-up today on a couple of my quilled designs... first, a marriage certificate for a tropical wedding in October. How I would have liked to have flown along with it!

The colors are a nod to sky and water - shades of blue, green, and turquoise with a bit of silver. It's probably safe to say the large S scrolls on each side of the hand-calligraphed text have become my signature style. I love the look of graceful scrolls, so am happy to do them again and again.

In addition to the large scrolls on each side of the vows, there's a wave motif below the signature lines. The piece measured 15" x 22" and was lettered by Riva Brown of Living Letter Studios. She and I often collaborate on marriage certificates and ketubot.

Here's a design I did last month for a Texas couple. They liked this monogrammed ketubah and requested a variation to enhance their wedding invitation before having it framed. The invitation was designed by the Anne Werme Group. Pressed on rigid paper, at least 1/16 inch thick, it has a shiny gold edge. My apologies for a photo shot in bright sun, but there's no better way to show how perfectly/luckily the gold edging matches the gilded-edge quilling paper.

The undermat is the same deep plum (not blue as it appears) as the quilling paper used for the scrolls at the top and bottom. My local frame shop did a beautiful job of cutting the angles to mimic the rounded corners of the invitation.

I took cues from the invitation's font to shape the couple's initials - my favorite part of the piece. Even though the overall design looks
simple, it's a difficult one to do. Each scroll has to be
shaped exactly the same to match its mirror image, and final gluing is as time-consuming as the quilling.

I absolutely love your quilled marriage certificates, but I am a bit confused. Is that a REAL marriage certificate? Mine is a long thin strip of green paper and I have to produce it for various things so couldn't have it framed. Is this just a national difference?

I am always amazed at your big S scroll Ann. It is so difficult to control such big scrolls and then to reproduce the same on the other side is such a talent. The letters are so elegant. and your motifs are so pretty too.

Thanks Wendy! This is very different from a government-issued certificate. It began as a Quaker tradition, but the idea has been embraced by others. The Quaker marriage certificate features a couple's vows and the signatures of everyone present at the wedding as a sign of support for the couple. This one is an abbreviated version with just the vows and signatures of the couple, officiant, and witnesses.

Hi Ann, your quilled initials are perfect and I love your signature s scrolls. I also love how you make asl shapes and those cute little arrow type heads at the end of the double filigree scrolls!! The colours are lovely and I adore the mix of shapes you have used. Congrats!!Licia